Eurasia Plate

This week, I traveled to Southern Asia to visit the Himalayan mountain range which formed as a result of the collision between the Eurasian and Indian plate boundaries. This collision is continental crust against continental crust and occurred 50 million years ago. Although the initial collision occurred 50 million years ago, these plates began to converge upon each other approximately 200 years ago when Pangea started to break apart. The continental mass of India eventually collided with Asia's continental mass when the intervening sea floor fully subducted underneath the continents. When the two plates collided, they created a reverse fault that still pushes this mountain range upwards. Along with the reverse fault, the Himalayas were created due to the compressive stresses of the collision. The types of rocks on this mountain range are sedimentary, with younger rocks such as limestone on top of older rocks such as granite. Since the Himalayas were a result of two plates colliding, they are considered fold mountains, meaning that folding dominates the structural style of this area.

Source: University of Bristol

Source: bbc.org